CHICAGO - MARCH 31: Light planes sit on the tarmac at Meigs Field after the runway in background was scarred by excavation equipment and closed March 31, 2003 in Chicago, Illinois. The small airport, located on the shore of Lake Michigan, was shut down in the middle of the night by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. Daley said the action was taken for security reasons. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)Planes sit on the tarmac at Meigs Field on March 31, 2003, the morning after then-Mayor Richard M. Daley had excavation crews dig giant Xs in the runway, closing the airport in the middle of the night, to make way for a lakefront park. Sixteen planes were stranded for several days. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
CHICAGO (CBS) — Ten years ago Saturday, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley had backhoes dig giant X’s into the lone runway at Meigs Field in the middle of the night, setting the stage to turn the peninsula into a lakefront park.
WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports Daley’s clandestine demolition of the runway at Meigs left the airport in a shambles, and stranded 16 planes at the airfield.
The move shocked Friends of the Parks President Erma Tranter, who was in favor of transforming Northerly Island into a lakefront park and nature preserve; even she thought the way the mayor went about it was ill-advised.
“It lacked transparency, of course,” she said.
